Madison times. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1884-1???, 1887-05-07
ORAToRf-sLOQuENCE.

men. Often 4 nation has divided lis
honors between its orators aud its SOW
erign. Dsmosthenes was greater
than Pin lip, Greece's menacing
rival Cicero WAS greater than Pom
pey; and who wouli think OF betting
CLAY or Webster BY comDariug an
with President Polk. Tyler. Pierce, or
Buchanan OratOrI UuLranks offe-.
nIUuey, social position. one o. all
. WIZ? These are cNtransOu,. aud OF
ten acc.dgG,l., th.tiutr nsc .ui. in =
degree, innIc. In no field ut himau
euJeIvor. save ia the military. D..
there sGch sr"iE through the hour
g. which makesbaOr breaks many. The
difficulties are many. In eXtemporc
speakiu5 some Of ,asse are a follows:
Selection OF words. pronunciation OF
same, arrangements of sentences, d.
VISIONS OF subject, remembrance OF
matter, at times Changs ot matter
with change OF circumstances. Or chang
/ ing tide OF feeling IN the audience, and,
above all, 4 disseminating >crut ny of
7 the audience; sometimes Il mastery of
the same 10y the eXertlon OF an intense,
subie soul force, known only 10 him
VINO wins the victory Ot clog Lcnce. ii
10 this De added III indifferent. IpIthct-
I ic, or hostile audience, the d,ilculiirs
81 Ii Increase. Nho goes Through
such au ordeal Us this. save the m lla-
~ commando who stakes the lives Of
thousands in the conflict of au hour?
Justly may the world give its honors
to The man who wins Ia such a strug-
gle.
We notice. secondly. the place. of
the orator relative 10 others.
The orator stanls midway between
the poet aud philosopher. Ihc pniios-
ophcr. address n the understanding.
aims 10 jnst LcL TO convince; the poet.
addressing the Inauguration and feel
ingS, ans to please and to move. Tne
orator combines al in one. Sciz NJ the
understanding, the Imagination, the
sensiUil ties, and bending them all to
one end, sweeps on to The will. and,
compasS.ng the whole maI IN his higher
purpose nurries him IN the hignc,t
functions OF life. namely. actiOn-uOble,
sublime. hero actIon. Here is victo-
~. Tnc warrior wins none 50 glorious.
He conqucrs the bodc. but tie orator
the heart, the in elect. Heart and
tongue have come with n tou:hIns dis
tanc1. and ton ,ue has conquered This
IS power.
We cons der. next, some of the cle-
ments of this power.
When asked what this power is. it is
usual to sar, cloquence; AMI SD it is.
But Immediately Ihs question coufronts
Us. What is eioqIelcc? Il is easy to
say IL Is magnetism. or il is the crown
and glory OF oratory; but these are
hardly satisfactory. Desr.ug to help
the young inqu rer, We wall try to state
some of the ingredients. These. As we
conceive them. are: (D Strong feeling.
rising at times to pass on. EIOqueHce.
like other 7ntangibla agents. as elect
rc.ty. magnetism. mind. is cababc Of
measuren mt only D. its effects. Hear
ers never pronounce the speaker
eloquent until the. are moved. 1. G.. till
they feel. and they never feel till the
speaker feels. SO it is feeling that be-
gets feeling. To character the feel
ing necessary to high clOquence, we
would say t must have three we'll
defined qualities dslicac..
ripIdity. The law of tue human heart
is that feeling begets feeling; anger,
anger; tenderness, tenderness; love.
love; thus on through the wide circle
OF ennObling affections or degrading
pass onS. Tue orator stands ON this
law. The old Roman said: at ris ne
ferre, dJtcn,tgm est p'inlam ipSe dds
-''lf you wish me to weep. you must
weep first" Substitute feel for tCeep
and the term becomes general and so
touches a responsive chord in cvcrt
human heart. (2.) The second i'll
gredient is viv Il mag nat on. This
is the power that makes people see
through their ears 1t is the faculty
that enables the speaker to make the
absent present; the ideal. real. So
he paints his picture of words, and
it Is Il panorama before hs audience
till they sec the inUiSi6,e.
These two faculties net rec;procally
upon each other, mag nation quicken
ing feeling. and feeling v.vifying
Imagination. The Imagination pants
a p.cture of beauty, of grief, of horror,
and the feelings are aroused. The
feelings are stirred by tale OF suffsr-
ing. heroism. and the Imagination I'M
medately seizss the brush and gives
new coloring to the picture. Tney
mutually help each other, and jointly
help elOqaence.
g. A third ingred ent is delivery.
Delivery s the medium through
which thought, feeling. and imagina-
ton are tr;lnsm tied 10 the audience. IL
is almost o trulsm to say the medium
affects that which is transmitted. Light
through colored glass is colored, and
through muddy glass is ob>cured. So
in the orator large thought, strong
feel ng. vivid Imagination, may all be
colOred or obscured by the medium
through which thel pass-delivery. On
the other hand. a perfect delivery
were there such thing-carr.e the
whole OF one soul over another, or
others. "a soul eEameled in fire.
transmits, through perfect delivery,
its light and heat with such perfection
as. 10 Iliumine, warm, and inspire till
other souls are rapt and borne away
under ehe divine rage OF eloquence.
IN conclus on, we would slate briefly
four cariinal elements IN high elo-
'quence: ~ Large thought; (2) strong
feeling; (3) vivid imag nat on; ~ m
pressive delivery Eloquence may be
attained with only q part of these, but
high eloquence only with all combined.
Hence cloquence is reserved for the
feU and hiVh clOCueuce for the elect